


hyperrealism and edgar allan poe

by fadedlullaby



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 17:43:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8810044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadedlullaby/pseuds/fadedlullaby
Summary: essentially keith the art major and lance the english lit major go to galra tech university and are rooommates.title explanation: - hyperrealism: a form of art that is what keith specializes in this- edgar allan poe: a writer who lance idolizes and loves in this my tumblr: yuuritoviktor





	

“Holy shit this is a big ass school,” is the first thing Lance says before his mother smacks him upside the head while they step foot on the campus. He doesn’t hear, or rather doesn’t pay attention, to her stern ‘Callaté la boca coño’ as he gazes at the tall buildings and the hoard of people bringing up microwaves and mini fridges into their kids rooms. It seems a bit surreal to Lance that he made it in anyways. It’s not that Lance is stupid, cause he’s not, he’s just lazy. But he’ll deny that just as much as he’ll deny the fact that he totally didn’t want to attend the school because of the girl to guy ratio being almost 3 to 1. 

Galra Tech University, or GTU for short, is a top ten school and has graduates that end up working for NASA and Google or even win Nobel Prizes. It’s insane and Lance knows that and he also knows that it’s expensive and so do his parents. As if the separation from his parents and his siblings wasn’t enough, he now feels this heavy burden because his parents are putting in every cent they can into his education. He’s grateful and guilty.

“Hey Pa, can we check out my dorm? I wanna see if I can snag the right side of the room since there’s more space before my roommate gets there,” he asks his father. “Yeah lets head up,” is the response they get and they head up the steps through these Victorian looking doors to the 4th floor to room 419 to see what hold in store. 

Lance fumbles for the room key in the tiny envelope that they gave him at check in so he can unlock this door and see what his room looks like because those tiny stock images on the university’s website probably make it look better than what it truly is. He finally manages to unlock the door and the room is empty. “Gracia ha díos dude I get the right side!”, he yells as he jumps into his bed and quickly regrets it as the sharp springs of a blue mattress that looks like it hasn't been replaced since the school opened pierce his back. “Okay we’re gonna need a mattress pad.”

He stays in the room while his parents bring up his things and looks at the view from his window. He sees his hall’s courtyard decorated with stone tables and benches. He can’t believe how lucky he is and he’s just in awe of the entire situation. 

His parents finish setting up his room quickly and his mom leaves him about 4 weeks worth of arroz con pollo in the mini fridge so he doesn't get too homesick. They leave him with a Martinez-McClain family hug and a prying of his youngest sister from his leg sobbing because she doesn't wanna leave her big brother alone in this room. “Don't worry Stef, my roommate is probably gonna get here later okay? No té preocupes”, he reassures her as she gives him a tear-filled kiss on the cheek and a sad wave goodbye as she gets into her car seat. Lance watches his parents drive off and then it hits him. He is finally on his own.

He goes back up to his room to find the door propped open and someone inside his room. He walks in and notices a boy with long black hair tied up in some sort of half ponytail half down shit wearing what seems to be ripped black jeans and an acid washed thrasher t-shirt about 2 times too big for him. His hair looked oily and he was working up quite the sweat from lifting boxes and putting away his clothes. Lance doesn't want to barge in so he knocks on the open door to show that he’s coming in and he sees the boy jolt and say “Holy FUCK who in the..”, and he stops as soon as he turns around to see Lance standing at the door. 

Lance is met face to face with the boy that he can only assume is his roommate. The first thing he realizes is the amount of eyeliner this kid has smudged under his eyes and the industrial piercing that looks like it hurt a lot. He also realizes that he’s skinny as shit and kinda short. And that's when he notices that he’s staring for a bit too long and that he should probably say something before he freaks the kid out. 

“It’s.. Kei… Keith right?”, he asks rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the floor before meeting the kids' eyes again. 

“Uh….”, the boy blushes obviously nervous, “y..yeah and.. you… you must be Lance?”

“That’s right, Lance Martinez-McClain at your service to try and be the best possible roommate that I can possibly be,” he goes “or at least good enough so you don't snoop through my stuff or think I’m a serial killer.” He gets a scoff and an eye roll from Keith at that as the boy goes back to unpacking what seems to be a shit ton of pencils and chalk? Or at least that's what he thinks it is. “Doooo you want any help?”, Lance asks.

“No thanks, this shit is expensive and I’m not in the mood to spend another hundred dollars on pastels if you break this,” he says and quickly adds after he realizes that he seemed like an ass, “thanks though dude.”

“Pastels?”, Lance questions, “Like as in painting and junk? Ha! Your look makes sense now! This is just great.” And in that moment, Lance realized that he had fucked up.

“Excuse me?”, Keith asks standing up to face the tall tan boy, “What in the fuck is that supposed to mean?”, he says as his fists clench at his sides.

Lance backs away as much as he can in the not so big dorm from Keith. “Woah woah woah, calm down dude it was only a joke… I’m sure the eyeliner has nothing to do with being an emo or anything I’m just a…” and he’s cut off by Keith before he can finish.

“Just shut up youre making this worse and I just met you,” Keith says sternly.

“….giant dumbass. Is what I was gonna say if you had let me finish but okay. Perdon”, Lance says settling into his bed and pulling out his phone. 

“Wait… what did you say at the end?”, Keith says after resting his easel against his side of the room.

“What?”, Lance tilts his head thinking, “…..what do you mean?”

“You said something like… ‘pear-don’”, he asks irritated a bit.

“OH!”, Lance answers, “I said perdon. That’s like ‘sorry’ in Spanish. Sorry dude”, he says getting a bit flustered, “I’m from Miami and I’m kinda used to having Spanish all around me so I just assume people understand me.”

“No…no don't worry it’s cool,” he reassures the boy who seems to be blushing a bit. He smirks at that. “You know its cool that you get to be surrounded by like your native language,” he adds, “I had to learn mine like when I got older.”

“I mean it isn’t all that great because you know you’re in deep shit when my mom calls your name completely like she’ll be like ‘Lance Daniel Martinez-McClain’”, he says in his best Cuban accent to impersonate his mom, “and at that point I wanna dart the hell out of my house,” he chuckles. He really is going to miss that now that she’s not gonna be there for him. 

“Uh.. yeah moms are tricky like that I guess,” Keith says sitting down on his bed. Finally done unpacking all of his supplies and organizing everything so he doesn't lose another sketchbook or pack of charcols that he might need for class.

Things go silent. They’re both in their respective beds just on their phones. This, Lance assumes, is that awkward part of meeting your first roommate where you just won’t speak to each other ever again until one sparks a conversation or a fight. They lay on their beds on their phones watching the time tick away. Being that it’s only 7PM, they can’t go to bed and they surely don't want to go outside since they know absolutely no one on their floor or in their hall to talk to. That's when Keith’s rings in the middle of temple run and scares him half to death.

“Hello,” he answers and then looks at Lance embarrassed for what’s about to happen. He walks out of the room just to stand outside the door to talk. He doesn't want Lance to hear his shit broken Japanese while talking to his family. 

All Lance hear’s from his bed is Keith just repeating rhythmic “un’s” and the occasional “hi’s” which have left him really confused. He assumes he’s talking to his mom or something. I mean isn’t that how every boy talks to their mom on the phone? Just enough to get them to hang up before they spark a 20 minute conversation asking them if they know how to properly use the washer and dryer in the hall’s laundry room? 

The phone call lasts about 3 minutes before Keith comes in looking even more frustrated than he did before. But Lance just assumes he has RBF and doesn't probe at what happened outside the room. 

“Hey… do you wanna order some food or something?”, Lance opens conversation, “I kinda don't wanna head all the way to the dining hall right now especially since I’ll be eating alone looking like the biggest freshman dweeb to step on a college campus.”

“What?”, Keith wasn't paying attention. He was more concerned about what he was going to wear tomorrow for the first day. ‘Should I try to look good? Or is trying to hard gonna make me look dumb?’

“I said do you wanna order food,” Lance repeats, “Like you wanna order some pizza?”

“Sure,” Keith chimes in still mostly invested in if his torn up tan shirt goes with his ripped black skinnies. “I…. I can pay half if you want?”

“Nah dude. Consider this a ‘Welcome to Being My Roommate I Hope I Didn't Piss You Off Too Much Earlier Because I Don't Want Animosity’ gift”, Lance proclaims smiling hoping Keith gets the gist of what he’s trying to say here.

Keith laughs at that. And blushes a bit as a matter of fact. “Th..thanks dude,” he responds, “and you’re cool there’s no animosity here.”

“Okay thank GOD that’s a weight lifted off of my amazing and sculpted shoulders,” Lance says as Keith rolls his eyes and smiles, “What do you want on your half of the pizza?”

“Can I get pineapples?” Keith asks before getting up to get a water bottle from the pack under his bed. 

“Excuse me what?”, Lance asks completely disgusted at what this fringe boy said. “Pineapples?”

“Yeah I like pineapples on my pizza?”, Keith repeats again confused.

Lance shuts his computer that he was ordering on, stands up, points to the door, and says, “Get out. I REFUSE to live with a dude who likes fucking PINEAPPLE on his pizza.” And that just starts another argument on why pineapples on pizza are good and how Lance is just a dumbass for not liking it. And Lance counters back with a ‘I have an exquisite palet’ argument until they end up getting the half pepperoni half pineapple pizza anyways.

“The wait time for your dastardly and revolting pizza is like 50 minutes”, Lance sighs, “So we have time to kill before we munch the fuck out.”

Keith doesn't respond. 

“Sooo…..”, Lance chimes in trying to not sit in silence for another hour because he’ll definitely lose his goddamn mind, “Tell me about yourself!” 

“Um…. Okay?”, Keith sits up on his bed, “What do you wanna know?”

“Well I’ve told you I’m Hispanic, my full name, that I’m from Miami, how my house life is, well kinda, so tell me about yours. Where are you from because you’re obviously not some white frat dude.”

“Oh,” Keith says. And he stops for a bit. “Well I’m Korean,” he starts off and right when he was going to add another thing Lance interrupts with the question he knew was coming.

“So you speak Korean right?”

“Well not exactly,” Keith says running his fingers through his hair. He tends to do that when he’s embarrassed or nervous. “I had to learn Korean because I was never really taught? So I started learning around like when I was 14.”

“But,” Lance adds, “If your Korean, then wouldn't you just get it from your parents? That's how I learned Spanish I mean my mom like hates speaking English unless she has to. She understands it though!”

“Yeah..”, Keith adds sighing. He didn't expect to reveal himself to his roommate like this on the first day since is something he hates talking about. “I never actually met my parents.”

“Oh. Shit dude I’m sorry I shouldn't have assu…”

“No stop.” Keith interrupts. “I don't need the pity okay? its been done its over with. They came to the states to look for a job and shit and my mom had me here but gave me up cause I guess I would’ve been too much to handle or some bullshit like that.” It’s always a sensitive subject for Keith to bring up. He doesn't like talking about how he was abandoned right after he was born. How his parents didn't care about his well being and just threw him in an orphanage. How they didn't love him enough to keep him. Their first son. 

“Okay, well…”, Lance quietly continues trying not to delve too much in the past, “What’s your full name?”

“Keith Park”, Keith says, “and my Korean first name is Hyojong. So essentially my name is Park Hyojong.” 

Lance gives a little smolder before leaning over and saying, “So, can I call you Hyo”, and he ends it with a wink that Keith wants to choke him out for.

“No one calls me by my Korean name. It’s too hard for them. Just Keith. Keith is fine.”, He tells Lance.

“Alright Hyo, I mean Keith, don't get your panties in a twist.”, he says with a smile knowing that Keith has his eyes darted at him. He can feel them burning holes into his skin. “So do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah I have an older brother. My adoptive brother. His name is Takashi but everyone calls him ‘Shiro’”, Keith adds. 

“Why ‘Shiro’? That doesn't match his name at all?”

“Shirogane is his last name. So it’s kinda like if I called you McClain instead of Lance”, Keith explains, “Shiro is short for Shirogane.”

“Oh Keith I love it when you call me by my last name,” Lance smiles pretending to swoon, “Say it again pleeeeaseee!” Keith scoffs at how ridiculous Lance is and at how hard Lance tries to be funny. It’s annoying and ridiculous but he kinda likes it. It’s some form of entertainment to him and for the rest of the year. “I’m KIDDING, but anyways, what about your like adoptive parents. Like what are Shiro’s parents? With a name like Takashi Shirogane it doesn't sound Korean to me.”

“They’re Japanese,” Keith answers, “so like I guess it kinda compensates. At least my parents aren’t White and I’m the obvious adopted son. I fit in I guess?”

“Yeah like Korean n Japanese they’re like cousin countries right? They’re like super close to each other.” Lance tries to make this kinda Asian joke thing but he doesn't really receive any sort of response from Keith. 

Keith on the other hand, is observing what he just got himself into. His roommate is this tall, tan, kinda lanky boy, with a super cocky personality, and a smile that looks like it can get away with anything. He’s looking his outfit up and down and notices that Lance doesn't really fit the stereotypical college dude look. He’s wearing a giant green cardigan, a loose fit tan shirt, some light wash jeans and, “Oh god are those timbs?” Keith thinks to himself. But he’s grateful. Because he doesn't have some steroid induced jock who would probably be the biggest douche and call him names the second he saw his industrial or his art supplies. Keith smiles to himself.

“You okay there dude?”, Lance doesn't get a response so he tries another time, “Hey, are you okay Hyo?”

“Huh? Wha… I told you not to call me that”, Keith spits back obviously a little annoyed and maybe little embarrassed over his name Lance assumes.

“Sorry dude but it’s as if you were daydreaming about something you were smiling to yourself and it was kinda weird not gonna lie…”, he gets a blush from Keith and a darting of his eyes to his side as Keith grabs his jeans obviously flustered, “I just wanted to let you know that the pizza is here, I just got a notif.”  
“O..oh okay sweet,” Keith says now looking at his feet as he still sits on his bed. He looks up to see Lance and he makes eye contact with him and quickly spurts a “Thanks again” which earns him a wide smile from Lance before he darts downstairs to pick up the food. This is when Keith realizes that he is utterly, royaly, and completely fucked if he catches feelings for this kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> translations for those who don't speak spanish:
> 
> \- "callaté la boca coño": shut your mouth damn it  
> \- "gracia ha dios": thank god  
> \- "arroz con pollo": rice with chicken  
> \- "no te preocupes": don't you worry  
> \- "perdon": sorry


End file.
